How a fugitive got work in airport security

FOR four years Ashwin Sharma was an illegal resident, a fugitive. But that did not stop the 27-year-old Indian from making a mockery of Australia's frontline security at Sydney Airport.

What is troubling is that it was not difficult, and if Sharma could do it so can a criminal, a narcotics trafficker, a thief. Or a terrorist.

All Sharma had to do was outlay $1200 to get a false NSW Security Industry licence. It was, Sharma boasted, too easy.

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In Sharma's case, a forged replica of his originally legally obtained security licence, with an added false expiry date, got him a job as a guard at Sydney Airport, where a recent Federal Government commission recommended an overhaul of protection arrangements.

He was a guard at Patrick Corporation's international freight depot. The security contractor is FBIS International Protective Services.

This should be enough to give nightmares to those responsible for the nation's security. But what is even more alarming is that these security agencies were warned about Sharma but did nothing.

The Australian Federal Police were told twice that Sharma was an illegal resident, that he had a forged security licence and that he worked at Patrick freight terminal. They were told where he lived. Nothing happened.

The same information was given twice to the Immigration Department. It, too, failed to act. Finally it was given twice to the NSW Police. They ignored it.

This happened when Australia was involved in a heated debate about proposed security laws, which culminated in the dramatic arrests of 16 alleged terrorists in Sydney and Melbourne. While the back door was being slammed shut, the front door was wide open.

All it took to reveal Sharma as a fraud was one phone call to the NSW Security Industry Registry, a police department. The Herald made the phone call, giving Sharma's name and licence number. The Herald was told the licence was "not current". Asked what it would mean if the licence had an expiry date of 01 June 2006, the registry replied: "Then it is a forgery."

Neither the police nor immigration authorities, which had been warned about Sharma, bothered to check with the registry. Nor did they check with the security provider at the freight terminal, FBIS. The Herald did. FBIS telephoned back to say it did not have, nor had it had, an employee of that name. When asked if Sharma worked for a security subcontractor who provided staff to FBIS, the response was: "I won't answer yes or no to that."

The Herald went to Patrick Corporation freight terminal and spoke to a FBIS security guard. "Ashwin? Sure, he worked here," he said. "But he left, maybe a month ago, six weeks …"

Sharma went to an immigration office in Sydney and said he was an illegal resident who wanted to return to India. He was given a bridging visa that allowed him to depart without being arrested at the airport, despite his admission that he had been an illegal resident for at least four years.

Sharma planned to be back within three months with a new Indian passport, a new name, confident that this time he would have illegally obtained false qualifications that would make him eligible to apply for permanent residency. He likes Australia.

He first arrived on a 24-month student visa that expired in late 2001. Before the expiry date he applied for and was given a NSW Security Industry licence. At the time, anyone in possession of a legal visa was eligible.

Sharma worked part-time as a guard for Cheetah Security Services.

A Cheetah principal, Siddiq Sadaqat, said the firm did not have security contracts at the airport. He said Sharma was used as a guard at banks, shopping centres and commercial enterprises.

But in 2003 the eligibility requirements for a security licence were toughened. To get a licence an applicant had to be born in Australia, or to be a naturalised citizen or to be a permanent resident.

Sharma, who had by then illegally overstayed his visa, was none of those. So he paid professionals to forge his expired licence with a new expiry date, showing the same photograph, name, birth date and licence number.

Apart from the changed date, the forged card did not contain the foolproof inbuilt security identification features that are easily visible on post-2003 licences.

Despite this, the authenticity of Sharma's licence was never questioned.